Easiest Baguette

Ingredients

950g bread flour

16g salt

2g yeast

730ml water

Half amount with sourdough (KIV for future experimentation)

455g bread flour

8g salt

40g sourdough starter

345g water

diastatic malt

Directions

• mix all ingredients together till well combined
• cover the bowl and leave it for 8-10 hours (can keep in the oven)
• generously flour working surface (to avoid sticking) and transfer dough
• divide into 4 equal parts
• take each piece and stretch it gently into baguette shape
• place in baking tray with parchment paper or baguette tray
• bake in a pre-heated oven 250°C for approx 25min till golden brown

Foodnote: Saw this recipe so obviously must try. Most of the baguette recipe I tried is a bit tedious or have long list of ingredients. I am constantly searching for the most basic recipe out there. 

I tried with half of the recipe. Mixed the ingredients at 9pm at night and bake it at 7am the next day. I thought it wouldn't yield so much dough and use my 2.35 litre pyrex bowl with cover. Around 3am woke up and discovered that the cover pops and there's a bit of overflow. Quickly replace with a wok cover instead hehe.

475g prima bread flour

8g salt

1g instant SAF yeast

365g bottled filter water

Used the non-stick baguette tray and after shaping (which is basically just lightly stretching it into longish shape) sprayed the surface generously with water before popping it into the oven. Baked the bread at 240°C for 25min. Smell good while baking in the oven. Amazing that the crinkle dough puffed up into smooth crispy baguette yippee!!!

Going to try using sourdough and also add diastatic malt to make the crumbs softer. Find this a bit chewy but nice & crispy when toasted. 

Easy Foccacia (Same Day Bake)

Ingredients

500g bread flour

4-5g instant yeast

400g warm water

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp salt

1 tsp honey

Directions

• in a large bowl mix flour with instant yeast
• add in water and mix
• add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well
• cover the bowl and rest the sticky dough for 30min
• fold dough using spatula and rest for another 1hour
• wet hand and fold nsew followed by coil fold
• add generous amount of olive oil on baking tray to cover all surface
• transfer dough, cover the dough in oil and rest for another 30-45min
• meantime, prepare toppings if any (I'm using paprika powder, tomatoes and mild cheese)
• pre-heat oven to 240°C lowest rack with fan
• use finger to poke the dough and spread it out
• add toppings (eg. paprika, garlic powder, herbs etc), sprinkle salt and more olive oil
• bake 15min
• cool on cooling rack

Foodnote: So after making my sourdough foccacia, decided to try this easy recipe for same day bake.

Recipe is taken from here. It actually turns out good and yummy. At first I thought the bottom is a bit burnt but it was ok. Very nice when eaten hot as it will have very crispy crust. Next time I would not put it at lowest rack... lower but not that low hehe. Overall I am satisfied with this recipe and will definitely make it again. Will just lined with baking paper if I'm worried about over baking the base hehe.

Baked this again on 5 July to share with a friend when we catch up for dinner... and it is really so yummy eating it hot. Very crispy and delicious. I fold in the cheese before final 1hr resting so that the cheese can distribute in the dough. Can't stop eating so definitely will be a go to recipe for foccacia.

Open Crumb Sourdough Focacia

Ingredients

320g distilled water

100g active sourdough starter

400g bread flour

15g olive oil

8g salt

Directions

• 
  add starter to water and mix well
• add in bread flour and olive oil followed by salt
• once everything is well mixed, transfer to a well oiled container, cover and rest for 30min
• wet hand and do stretch and fold... cover the dough and rest for another 30min
• do a second stretch and fold.... cover and rest for 2-3 hours
• coil fold and leave the dough in the fridge for 14-16 hours
• lightly dust work surface
• shape like sourdough and place in baking pan
• let it rest for 3hrs
• 
  in another bowl... mix 15g of olive oil and 15g water (salamoia)
• prepare desired toppings
• pour the mixture of oil+water over the dough
• with wet fingers, make classic holes
• press and insert toppings into holes as deep as possible as it might pop back up
• topped a sprinkle of sea salt and olive oil
• bake at 230°C for 25min till golden brown

Foodnote: Recipe from here. Decided that it is time to move from sourdough bread to focaccia hehe. I still have jalapeno and cheddar cheese so decided to use these. Also added sunflower seeds for colour and crunch. Turns out soft and nice for a first home attempt. Next time will make it flatter on a tray. Good recipe and very yummeh... I ate it with nasi lemak sambal Happy Family brand bought from Sheng Siong. Very nice and so spicy!!

Healthy and Quick Flatbread

Ingredients

300g plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cumin (optional)

1 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp plain yoghurt

~100ml water

Directions

• in a large bowl add flour, salt, ground cumin, baking powder and mix it up
• add yoghurt and mix 
• add water gradually and knead till smooth soft dough is formed
• let it rest for minimum 5min
• take a portion of dough and round it up... dip in flour and roll into flat dough
• topping can be added... wet the surface and sprinkle with desired topping eg. fresh herbs or chopped chillies or roasted cumin seeds etc.
• cook on a hot pan for few minute and turn to the other side
• remove from pan and brush with butter

Foodnote: Inspired after successfully making chapati a few times, I tried this flatbread. I tried to recreate the flatbread bought by my 2nd brother in Shanghai hehe. The flatbread is soft and I covered the cooked flatbread with towel just like chapati because I wanted a soft bread. It is really nice and soft. What I did is I brush it with melted butter and generously sprinkle with paprika and also garlic. It tasted a bit like the bread my brother brought back from Shanghai. Not the same but ok. I really think it is paprika instead of sezhuan chilli pepper. Kept the rest in the fridge to eat with chilli tuna or rendang or turn into healthy vegetables wrap. 

Sourdough Breads + Healthy Seeds

Wholemeal Sourdough Bread with Pumpkin Seeds + Flaxseeds + Multi-grains toppings

• Tanoshi Premium Japanese bread flour
• 35g pumpkin seeds + 35g flaxseeds
• mix wholegrains for topping (wet the shaped dough and rub grains over it before transferring to banetton... and CF in fridge)
• 74% hydration (224g instead of 210g water for each bread)
• 3hr bulk fermentation

Foodnote: Attempt to make a healthier wholemeal sourdough bread with seeds. I have pumpkin and flax seeds. Not sure how it will turn out but it rise well and check out the oven spring. Will definitely be baking this again soon!

Made this again on 28 Jan 2023. This time it is the following...

• Tanoshi Japanese bread flour
• 10g flaxseed + 30g sunflower seed + 30g pumpkin seed
• 74% hydration (225g water)

Foodnote: Made this again because I love it although it tasted like delicious cardboard lol. Really love it because it have all healthy seeds. I reduced the flaxseed and added sunflower seeds.

Chapathi

Ingredients

200g atta flour

pinch of salt

2 tbsp olive oil

3/4 cup water 

Directions

• add olive oil, salt and flour in a bowl and mix with hand
• add water bit by bit till soft dough is formed (might not need to add all)
• form into a ball, cover with olive oil and leave to rest for at least 30min
• divide equally into 8 pieces and round each ball
• pre-heat non-stick pan
• on a generously floured surface, roll each dough as thinly as possible
• cook each chapati on both sides till fully cooked
• keep wrapped in towel or in covered bowl to keep it soft

Foodnote: I love chapati so I finally bought atta flour from Sheng Siong. This time I tried the Anarkali Gold Atta flour. Making chapati is easy compared to roti prata and very satisfying to eat. Cousin gave me minced meat which I cook into curry. I ate 3 pieces chapati with the curry because I am greedy lol. Will keep the rest either to eat with balance curry or make wraps with it.

Next time I will try this. Will brush the cooked chapati with ghee and also will use one of my old tiffin box to store the chapati.

Sourdough Breads

1. Cheese + Jalapeno
2. Cranberries + Mixed Citrus Peel + Almonds

• Murasaki Botan Japanese unbleached flour
• 74% hydration (224g instead of 210g water for each bread)
• 3hr bulk fermentation

Foodnote: Very nice, soft and good crumbs. Dough is easy to handle and feels good. First time trying cheese + jalapeno and it turns out nice. Smells like pizza but bread is flatter perhaps due to the inclusions. As usual, dry inclusions turns out very well. Happy with both breads.

Baguettes (Poolish)

Ingredients 

Poolish (night before)

1g instant yeast

125g warm water

125g bread flour

Dough (next morning)

300g bread flour

5g salt

1g instant yeast

140g warm water

Directions

• mix poolish ingredients and let it sit overnight in a covered bowl at room temperature
• poolish should be very bubbly the next day to indicate active yeast
• add water to the poolish and mix in the dry ingredients
• let the dough sit in the bowl covered for 10min
• stretch and fold the dough 4x at 10min interval
• let it proof for 1hr
• punch down the dough and divide into 3 equal parts
• fold and roll each dough and rest for 15min covered in damp cloth
• shape the dough into baguette and transfer to baguette tray
• let it rest for 1hr covered with damp cloth
• meanwhile pre-heat oven to 240C
• score the baguette, spray with water and bake for 20-25min till desired color (add ice to bottom tray to create steam. Remove ice tray after 10min. Reduce the temperature to 200C at 15min)
• let the bread cool fully on a wire rack before slicing

Foodnote: Love baguettes and going to keep trying to find good recipes. Trying this recipe. This is a good recipe. Dough is easy to handle and steps is very clear. I still need to improve on my shaping and scoring but overall this is good. The smell of baking bread is always so good. Will definitely make it again... perhaps maybe I divide the dough into 4? Make the baguette skinnier 😊

The poolish makes the bread soft and really yummy nom nom nom... Will stick to this recipe for baguette for now. Might try to add diastatic malt next time.

Pumpkin Sourdough Bread

Ingredients

300g bread flour

100g active sourdough starter

6g salt

250g pumpkin puree

50g pumpkin seeds

Directions

• in a bowl, mix flour with salt
• add starter and pumpkin puree and stir well
• transfer to mixer and using dough hook, mix for 10min
• transfer back to bowl and rest for 30min
• do first coil fold and rest for 30min
• add pumpkin seeds 1/4 at a time while doing coil fold and rest another 30min
• do 3rd coil fold and rest till dough double in size
• transfer into floured surface and shape
• put into proofing basket, cover with plastic
• leave in chiller for 8 up to 48hrs till ready to bake
• pre-heat oven and dutch oven to 230C
• transfer to silicon mat, score and transfer to dutch oven
• insert ice into flap of dutch oven
• bake for 30mins covered
• remove lid and bake at 200C for another 15min

Foodnote: I have pumpkin seeds and been wanting to try and make pumpkin sourdough bread. Found this simple recipe from here. Weather is good and sunny... have bought pumpkin from the supermarket to make into puree. Starter is still active so it became another bread day. However, I only managed to get 230g of puree so I added 20g water. Turns out good. 

The smell of baking bread is marvellous as always and love that it is a bit rounded and not flat. There is not much oven spring but I am good with it.

It was a rushing day. While cooling the bread, I went out for walk. A friend message me that she have extra ticket for Perfect Timing by Dr Omar Suleiman. So I decided to bless half of the bread for her. Reached home late so I only managed to taste the bread the next day. Lightly toast it on my non stick pan and slather it with my favorite Lurpak butter.

Ok... it is so delicious oh my. Definitely will make this again 😘👌!

Summary of Sourdough Bread: Step by Step

Directions 

Day 1: Sourdough Starter 

• (eg. require 140g starter. Always make a bit extra)
• half feeding in morning (eg. 20S+20W+20BF) 
• final half feeding in evening (eg. 50W+50BF) 
• (to accelerate process, put in oven with lights on)
• feeding of active starter ratio 1S:2W:2BF

Day 2: Prepare Dough 

• measure and mix all dry ingredients in a bowl eg. all flour, salt and diastatic malt (optional)
• add distilled water and starter and mix to shaggy dough 
• rest for 1 hr
• 3x stretch & fold every 30min (add additions at 2nd fold)
• check gluten development (window pane) if still not ready, do coil fold
• proof till size increase by 25% (total 3-8hrs or 12-24hrs if using unfed starter) 
• transfer on working surface (divide if required) and gently round with scraper making a tight loaf
• rest 20min
• meanwhile lightly flour banetton with rice flour 
• gently shape a tight dough and transfer to banetton
• cover with plastic and leave in fridge to cold retard for 8hr up to 48hr 

Day 3: Bake 

• pre-heat oven 240C no fan together with dutch oven for minimum for 45min to 1hr 
• transfer dough into freezer for 30min to firm up and help with scoring
• transfer dough to parchment or silicon paper 
• rub surface of dough with rice flour
• score deep enough for oven spring
• transfer into hot dutch oven and spray with water... quickly cover the dutch oven
• bake for 20min covered and lower oven to 230C and bake uncovered for another 15-20min till desired color 
• *Internal temperature for cooked sourdough bread should be 96-98°C
• cool on rack for > 1hr before slicing 

Optimal Sourdough Starter Preparation

Ratio 1:5:5

• divide required amount of starter by 2 eg. for 300g, use 150g BF: 150g W
• take 10% of 300g... so we need 30g starter
• use all sourdough starter once fully active or peaked

7min tips to get an Ear

• before baking, score bread as usual
• after 7min of baking, take out the bread and do a second score near the small "ear"
• continue baking
• ie. for a controlled scoring, score deeper at specific parts of bread after 5min of baking

Tips for better oven spring

• pre-heat dutch oven for 1hr
• immediately after putting in dutch oven+dough into the oven, turn off the oven for 20min
• turn on the oven 240C and continue baking for 20min or so and bake with open dutch oven till desired color

Click here for my go to regular recipe.

Foodnote: Usually I use prima unbleached bread flour. The above bread is baked with bob's mill unbleached bread flour. 

Chocolate Cherries Sourdough Bread

Ingredients

350g bread flour 

40g cocoa powder

320g water

80g active starter 

8g salt

5g diastatic malt

Inclusions:

leftover cherries

semi-sweet chocolate chips

Foodnote: Recipe here. So I bought Cacao Barry cocoa powder to try due to the good reviews. It really smells amazing. Found this simple recipe however could be due to my technique, the bread ends up flat. Is it due to the inclusions? Will keep trying and learning.

Taste wise... it is ok with strong cocoa taste. Nice to bite into the cherries though. It taste awesome with cream cheese. Hhmmm will try chocolate cheddar sourdough bread.

My Cousin's Prata Style Roti

Ingredients

2/3 atta flour

1/3 plain flour

pinch of salt

water

vegetable oil

Directions

• mix both flour together in a bowl and add in salt
• add water till a soft dough is formed
• rest dough for 1hr or leave it in the fridge till ready to cook
• when ready to cook, pre-heat flat pan or non-stick pan on low heat
• round dough into a ball and flatten it on a lightly floured work station
• put vegetable oil on the surface of the flatten dough
• roll the dough and roll spiral (as picture)
• roll the dough again to flatten as thin as possible
• cook on pan with oil just like a prata

Foodnote: When I went to KL after a work trip, my cousin cooked this for me (besides the yummy pakistani briyani). It is easy to make and very nice. Her pakistani husband taught her to make it and my cousin, the brother... insisted that she cooked it for me. It is just like a combination of chapati and prata. We ate with mince meat but I am sure it will be nice with curry or keema. Now... need to go and buy atta flour. 

Sourdough Bread with Great Oven Spring

Ingredients and directions same as here

Only difference is baking directions

• pre-heat dutch oven to 230°C for 30min or more
• transfer dough with parchment paper into pre-heated dutch oven and spray with water and quickly put the lid on
• transfer the dutch oven in the pre-heated oven and turn off the oven... yes turn it off!
• leave the dutch oven in the heated oven for 20min
• after 20min, remove the dutch oven cover, admire the oven spring and turn on the heat to 230°C with fan
• bake for 15-20min till desired color
• cool for few hours before serving

Foodnote: Wanted to bake a plain sourdough bread to eat with rendang or SCS butterscotch butter with butterscotch spreadable. Saw this tip online and I just have to try it because I love to see the oven spring. It didn't disappoint and it really gives a very impressive oven spring. I will probably be doing this from now on :) Always good to learn new things to improve my bakes.

Sourdough Bread with Inclusions

Adapted from here.

Ingredients best for 1 loaf

70g active starter

210g water

315g bread flour

7g salt

4g diastatic malt

Dry Inclusions: +/- 1 cup depends on ingredients and how much you want

For sourdough starter: I add 50% water + 50% bread flour to any amount of starter (1 tsp up to same amount of water/flour. Leftover scraping also can use) and leave it for at least 4hrs or overnight. Can use unfed starter but have to leave mixture up to 24 hours and then shape. Sometimes to speed up fermentation, place newly fed starter in oven and place a bowl of hot water beside it to create warm environment.

Directions

• in a bowl, mix starter with water
• add in bread flour, salt, malt and mix till even (to add dry inclusions eg. seeds, nuts, dried fruits at this stage)
• cover bowl and leave for 1hr 
• first fold and fold 2x after 30min (to add fresh inclusions eg. blueberries together with 1st fold)
• check for window pane... if not fold again 1-2x
• cover bowl again and let it proof till double in size (~ total 8 hours from mixing... up to 24hrs if starter have not been fed and not active)
• shape and place in banetton that have been lightly dusted with rice flour
• let rest for 30min and keep in fridge till ready to bake (~8hrs or within 3 days)
• bake with top bottom heat and fan at 230°C in pre-heated dutch oven for 20min covered
• open cover of dutch oven, and bake for another 10-15min depending on desired crust coloration
• let cool for few hours before cutting

Foodnote: Find that this works best so far for sourdough with dry inclusions so. This time I bake 1 loaf with Origins california treat that have almonds, black raisins, cashew nuts, cranberries, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. I chopped the whole almonds and cashew nuts to make it smaller. The other loaf is with mixed citrus peels that I bought from Phoon Huat. Turns out well and inclusions are evenly distributed. 

Going to try the following flavours sourdough next:

- pumpkin cinnamon

- apple cinnamon

- orange or purple sweet potato

- fresh blueberries + lemon zest

- cheese + cranberry

- walnut + cranberry

- and many more woohoo

So excited to bake more sourdough to share with friends and families. 

Pau Sambal / Burger Malaysia

Ingredients

50ml warm water

1/2 tbsp instant yeast

1/2 tbsp fine sugar

> mix everything together and put aside for 5min till bubbly

2 cups flour

2 tbsp fine sugar

2 tbsp milk powder or condensed milk

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter or vegetable oil

50-80ml water

Fillings

sambal ikan bilis

cucumber

salad

Directions

• in a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients together and mix well
• add butter and mix using hands
• pour in the yeast mixture followed with water (a bit at a time) and knead till a dough is formed
• cover the bowl and proof for 1-2hr till dough is puffy
• punch down the dough and lightly knead to smoothen the dough
• divide the dough to desired size (44 - 45g each = 10pcs), round and transfer to parchment paper
• cover with shrink wrap and let it rest for another 30min
• lightly flatten before deep fry in very low heat till golden brown (be patient so that the inside is fully cooked)
• once cooled, cut into two and fill with sambal, cucumber and salad

Foodnote: Was thinking of burger but ended up with this Malay burger instead hehe. Turns out very well. I kept some frozen so that I can eat it other day. Yum yum. Craving satisfied. 

The recipe can also be used as donut or fill with peanut paste.

No Knead Cranberry, Walnut and Honey Bread

Ingredients

3 cups of bread flour

1 tsp active dry yeast

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp honey

1 1/2 cup warm distill water

1/2 cup chopped walnut

1/2 cup dry cranberry

Directions

• in a large bowl add bread flour, dry yeast and salt
• in another small bowl add honey to warm water and mix thoroughly
• add the honey water to the dry mixture and mix till well combined
• add walnut and cranberry and mix well
• cover the bowl and let it rest for 1-3 hours (till dough double in size)
• transfer dough to well floured working surface
• fold the dough a few times and shape it into a ball
• transfer dough into a bowl/banetton and let it rest for final proofing
• pre-heat oven with a dutch oven at 230°C
• 30-45min transfer dough to a parchment paper, score and bake dough covered for 20mins and uncovered for 10-15min
• cool on a rack for 1hr or so

Foodnote: Need a good bread fast to bring to a gathering at my friend's place. Just use yeast because if not my yeast will cry in the fridge since I'm always using sourdough starter hehe. Fast good and yummy woohoo. This bread is a hot favourite with my friends who ate it with Golden Churn spreadable butter with avocado oil.

Maybe next time I might try to add honey to my sourdough bread with inclusions eh.

Brioche Bread

Ingredients

Sponge

128g all-purpose flour

7g active dry yeast

120g warm milk

Dough

320g large eggs room temperature (~5eggs)

384g all-purpose flour

105g sugar

12g sea salt

227g soften butter

Egg Wash

1 large egg

1 tbsp water

~ Sea salt for sprinkling

Directions

• 
  mix all the sponge ingredients in a mixing bowl and using a hook attachment, mix till well combined and put it aside for 45min
• once sponge have air pockets, add in eggs, flour, sugar and salt and mix on medium till well combined then increase to medium high till dough pulls away from sides and is very elastic and shiny
• add in butter about 1 tbsp at a time at medium speed for about 15min and increase speed to medium high for about 7min (test window pane)
• cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 1hr or double in size
• once dough has doubled in size, turn out onto a floured surface and punch down dough
• divide in half using a bench scraper
• cut each half into six equal pieces and flatten each piece into a rectangle, then fold short ends in towards each other as if folding a letter
• flatten again and tightly roll into a log starting with the short end... repeat with all pieces
• place 6pcs of dough into a greased loaf pan and cover with plastic wrap and rest for 1hr or double in size
• pre-heat oven to 190°C and prepare the egg wash
• once dough is ready, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with salt
• bake for about 30min or top is deep golden
• let cool completely before baking

Foodnote: Butter make everything taste better and since I am a butter hoarder hehe and a fan of bread... so Brioche it is!! This is quite challenging. I think I did wrong as I can't get to the window pane stage :( I just go ahead and proof to 1hr and proceed to the other steps while praying hard it will turn out looking like bread hehe. It still double in size on final proofing though pheeewww... Finally I have a very super soft bread. Will I make this again... eeerrr unlikely. Maybe will try to find a better and easier to handle brioche bread dough.

French Baguette

Ingredients

475g bread flour

65g all purpose flour

2g instant yeast (SAF gold)

3g diastatic malt

10g salt

380g filtered water

Directions

• mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl
• make a well and add in water
• mix all ingredients are well combined till shaggy mass is formed
• place dough in a clean and lightly oiled bowl
• rest the dough for 3hr, folding it 3x every 45min (LFTB and turn smooth side up)
• after 3hr, lightly flour the counter and transfer the dough (smooth side down)
• divide into 3 portions
• pre-shape each dough (pat and roll to tighten the dough) and rest for another 30min
• final shape the baguette to baguette tray and let it rest for 30-60min
• pre-heat oven to 220°C
• score the baguette right before baking and spray with water
• after putting the baguette on a tray in the oven, place also a bowl with ice to stimulate steam
  
  
• bake for 20-25min (turn tray 10min into baking and remove the bowl of water)
• let it cool on a wire rack for 1-2 hours

Foodnote: One of my niece makes awesome homemade mushroom soup 😘👌 and she is so nice to share it with me. So I thought I'd make her homemade french bread. 

Saw this recipe on youtube and the baguette looks really good so of course must try. Everything is good and dough is very easy to handle... except next time I will lower the baking temp to 220°C instead because I think Asian are not very used to dark crusty bread... I think lah. I also need to improve more on how to shape french bread

I really love this recipe and will try to make it again for practice.

Katzoomi Bread (Sourdough Shokupan)

Ingredients

Sweet Starter

40g active starter

40g water

40g bread flour

20g sugar

Preferment

100g starter

40g water

100g bread flour

Main Dough

120g bread flour

20g sugar

5g salt

25g water

20g whipping cream

all of the sweet starter

all of the preferment

20g unsalted butter

Directions

• prepare the sweet starter in a container: mix starter with water and add flour with sugar
• prepare the preferment: mix starter with water and add bread flour
• leave both at room temperature for 2.5hr and keep the preferment in the fridge
• let the sweet start peak for about another 2hr
• add all ingredients in a mixer except for butter
• using a dough hook, mix everything for about 10-15min
• add in the butter and mix till windowpane stage
• divide dough into 2, round and rest for 20min
• shape the dough: roll it long and roll it
• put dough into greased loaf tin and let it proof to 50% (2hrs or more)
• apply egg wash (1 egg + 1 tsp milk)
• bake at 180°C for 35-40min (might want to cover it with foil if the top get too dark)

Foodnote: Saw this loaf of bread and just have to make it since it is using sourdough starter instead of yeast. Love it but it does takes a long time to prepare BUT in terms of taste... ooh la la... really super delicious. I only ate it the next day. After slicing, it was lightly toasted and spread with butter. The texture is so soft with crispy crust and the taste oh so divine. I have to stop myself from eating the whole loaf hehe.

Will definitely make this again but for quick fix yummy loaf will be using the killer toast recipe. The smell of fresh baking bread permeating the house... simply awesome!

Dates and Almond Sourdough Bread

Ingredients

260g distilled water

90g active sourdough starter

390g bread flour

5g diastatic malt

9g sea salt

1 cup chopped dates

1 cup chopped almonds

Directions

• in a large bowl add starter to water and mix well
• add in the bread flour, malt and salt mix well till well combined
• let it rest for 1hr
• transfer to lightly floured surface and round the dough then rest for another hour
• stretch the dough out as big as possible and sprinkle the dates and almonds
• round it up again and let rest for about 4-5hours till dough is double in size
• shape the dough and transfer to a banetton that have been dusted generously with rice flour
• let it rest for 1hr and then keep in the fridge for 2hours or more
• bake as usual in dutch oven (250°C covered for 20min and another 20min uncovered)

Foodnote: Ever since I learnt the simpler way to make sourdough bread and while my starter is getting very active, I decided to make something I've always wanted to try out.

Dates + Almonds = Super Yummy Sourdough bread!!

I think the malt helps makes the crumb softer and less chewy. This is really so delicious I will definitely make this again. Furthermore, it doesn't take long and minus the folding2 process. So happy that I decided to experiment with this yeay!! The bread also yield quite a big loaf... I'll be eating this for the next few days hehe.


Update 7 Oct 2022, Friday:

I really like to have sourdough with fruits and nuts so I made it again... this time with cranberry and almonds. I think I still love the dates and almonds combo. I split the dough into 2. One big one small. I have guests coming so baking it for them and thinking I will keep the small piece for myself. But when I see the guests enjoying the bread, I tapao it for them. I can always make this again :)